The machine's design consists of a skeleton (1) that is formed by two parallel support beams (8,9) and crossbars perpendicular to them (10, 11, 12, 13), which are retractable and expandable within a frame (2, 3), in order to be able to change to machine's working width. The ends (14, 15, 16, 17) of the parallel support beams have been fitted with rollers (18, 19, 20, 21) that facilitate the machine moving in the right direction. In such machines, the resources required for dividing, vibrating and leveling the concrete, such as a divide screw, a vibrating device and a leveling device are suspended at the bottom of such an extendable skeleton. In these machines, the operating resources, such as the motor, the controls and the driver's seat are fitted on top of the aforementioned skeleton. In this regard, it is normal that a platform is placed on top of the central frame (2, 3).
Examples of the said machines for realizing concrete pavements, with further details on the rollers and the resources that are suspended at the bottom of the skeleton can, for example, be retrieved from U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,728, BE895198, BE895199 and BE1002820. The disadvantage of the existing machines is that they are mostly too large and too heavy, and can therefore only be moved as exceptional transport with the associated regulations. Moreover, the diesel engines in these machines have to comply with the new regulations with regard to emissions, namely TIER 4 FINAL engines, which require bigger engine rooms, and it therefore, with the current configuration, becomes more difficult to keep these machines outside of the scope of the regulations with regard to exceptional transport. Besides the disadvantage with regard to the size and weight of these machines, the design of the engine and the control devices on top of the frame have an additional disadvantage that the driver's vision is impaired, through which it becomes difficult to operate the device in all the driving directions. Besides, the extendable skeleton in the existing machines is operated by means of a single cylinder on each side (see cylinders 29 and 60 in FIG. 1 of BE1002820). The slightest warping can block the angled crossbars in the frame.
One of the objectives of this invention is to offer a solution to the aforementioned problems with the existing paving machines, whereby the machines can comply with the TIER 4 FINAL standards, and, at the same time, can fall outside of the regulations with regard to exceptional transport.